everydream

Challenge: Create Emotional Response in Design 

I struggle every day with expressing my own “self” within the design I am making for others. I am sure like me, most of you have an inner desire to create. That this creation is not just something we do… but actually is somehow connected to our inner-self. To me the act of design is just as natural as breathing, and just as important to my overall health and well-being.

We, as a group, need to understand obvious expressions of who we are cannot be included in someone else’s message. (But inherently are included because no matter if you are the designer or the viewer you always bring your own emotional baggage to the table when ever interacting with any object or person.) Unless you pick your clients that match your political/social beliefs, you will most likely work on something that you deem somewhat irrelevant to society at large – its just par for the course at this moment.

If we can’t be worried about our own expression – then we should be worried about how people see the expression we are creating for our client on a level higher than – well will they recognize this brand? Or does this say expensive?

Let us challenge ourselves to design to a higher level based on human interaction, sustainability, and emotional response. Let us not “dumb down” imagery or information to the lowest common denominator.

Let us just not be people – but people who design for people… not consumers.

I challenge you to create design that is emotional.

Social Networking: Personal vs. Professional – The Blurring Line 

A question I always grapple with is how to balance my professional and personal life on social networking sites and even this website. I am sure some of you have had the same thoughts. I somewhat viewed it as a design problem to be solved. There are ups and downs to combining your personal and professional lives for all to see.

-If you are too forthcoming with opinions and personal belief structure you could alienate potential clients, employers, and connections.

-If you hold back you have internal struggles that could include not writing about passionate topics and start thinking “what about who I am as a person – my beliefs are part of who I am. I just want to tell them about who I am.” (Specifically now to the younger of my generation who are constantly searching for individuality in the post “me-economy”.)

I am cautious. I moderate all of my posts. I do not include politically inflammatory speech on publicly available outlets. I do not speak of religion. I believe if I steer clear of these two topics in general I should be a-okay. For me its about putting my best foot forward and to give the online world the best me I can.

The one time I did delve into the political arena on Twitter both sides of the aisle attacked me. Not exactly what I wanted to get out of it and I lost some “followers” because of it. I decided at that point that Twitter was not about opinion but rather it was about information dissemination. Twitter does not allow you to have meaningful conversation and because of the limited format allows for gross misinterpretation in 140 characters or less.

I do freely express myself in other ways that I believe creates a balance. This balance shows my professional and personal sides to all those who wish to see while remaining in the “safe zone” away from Kenny Loggins.

I freely discuss my opinion about design for both my own work- and others. This allows me to not only engage other people in conversation but also have my own work be dissected. Plus design is what I do and feel I have enough express for my peers and they for me that we can adequately discuss the design without coming to fisticuffs.

I freely discuss what music I listen to. Music is an important part of my life and enjoy letting people know of new artists. (I am hipster like that.)

I freely link to interesting articles from all over the web – just not professionally geared – but I include articles about my other interests that could bridge the gap between my personal and professional posts.

I post imagery of myself and my life. Whether it is an interesting photo or a group shot. I do this because not everyone who visits my site is a random web visitor. I have owned this domain for 6 years.

As a designer I believe my professional and personal life do not need to be separate. Design is not a “job” or a “career” for me. This is what I enjoy doing. Even now on my vacation I find myself sketching, reading, and thinking about design no matter where I am. I am compelled to express myself… however that doesn’t mean I do not have to express everything about me. Only the best parts about me.

Social networking is about creating an experience that is uniquely you – without running away potential.

Advice for Designers to Live By 

Words to live by for every type of designer who works with a client.

The Cost of Healthcare: EGD Edition 

Note: This post was originally written on October 29th, 2009 for the FocusEGD Blog. FocusEGD is the company I work for. FocusEGD is a multi-disciplinary designer firm located in Dallas, TX specializing in environmental graphics for the built environment. For more information visit our website at http://www.focusegd.com.

Today, the House Democrats unveiled their Healthcare Bill. Did you know as an environmental graphic designer you can directly impact the cost of healthcare for thousands? You might be asking yourself “How?”.

Imagine you are a small rural healthcare provider building a new flagship hospital. This greenfield hospital will replace two other aging hospitals in the area. The community is excited about gaining a new and improved facility that will bring a much needed medical technology to their area.

You have just been selected to program and design the hospitals wayfinding signage and other graphics. You begin working and attend planning meetings, the architecture is great and the project is becoming more interesting every minute.

The provider lets you know that he has a limited budget for the whole project to work with, but to your surprise the signage has a pretty healthy line item.

Do you:

A – Take advantage of the budget trying to spend every penny?

or

B – Do you work to keep costs down?

Too many times I have heard horror stories of designers taking the “A” approach. These designers lean on the use of art glasses, resin materials, and solid aluminum as a display of their design skills. (I kid you not, I have seen all three applied to one typical room sign. It had a curved metal piece, an acrylic with photopolymer face, and a large 3/4″ thick piece of artglass on the back.) Do not get me wrong, I like these materials, I use them when I feel it is appropriate, but the cost of these materials can raise prices beyond $200, $300, even $400 dollars per sign. You read that right – PER SIGN. Times that by 2500 signs in a typical facility and now you have sky rocketed costs… but its “below budget”! Who cares!? Right? Right….?

The impact of signage is not limited to the upfront cost. Facility managers will be ordering signs regularly to keep with requested nomenclature changes, damaged signs, and relocations for years to come.

Utilizing materials that dissimilar can cause attachment issues and contribute to fabrication failure at no fault to the fabricator. Furthermore, the weight of the sign might illicit the use of studded attachment instead of just silicone so replacing them now involves more.

Remember these signs are each made one by one. When a sign is ordered by facility manager a replacement will be built at most likely a higher cost. These costs are directly forwarded to both patients and insurance companies as operating expenses.

Sure signage maybe a small portion of that yearly budget and cost, but be the change you want to see. We might not all agree about how to reduce costs of healthcare, but let us, the EGD community, be inspired by responsible cost effective solutions.